15 August 2016

Unitec shuts the door on North Shore campus

Unitec plans to close its northern campus at Albany before the end of the year.
Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce opened the campus only five years ago calling it "a crucial part in the next stage of the country's economic growth".

Unitec chief executive Rick Ede had anticipated more than a thousand students would come to the campus but currently it has about 25 students. Ede has admitted to the media the campus was "never in exactly the right place".

TEU's Unitec branch president Wei Yuen Loo says Unitec's management has made an enormous business and strategic blunder, delivering way below their own claimed expectations.

"It's a real shame for the people who work at the northern campus. They have poured heart and soul into developing this campus and promoting it to local schools and parents. They have been sorely let down by Unitec management."

Wei Yuen Loo says it is the people who work at the campus who will have to deal face-to-face with disappointed students and their parents.

"Students will need to relocate to the Mt Albert campus and this means, in most cases, up to two hours of additional travel time per day."

Wei Loo says Unitec's constant restructuring and changing of strategic direction is wasting taxpayers' money and undermining good teaching.

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